He won Qur'an Recitation Contests known as "Musabaqah Tilawatil Quran" ("MTQ") during the 1980s in Indonesia and abroad.

His talent was recognised during childhood in his hometown Pemalang where he participated and won a local children's Quran Competition in 1962 when he was just 7 years of age[2] H. Muammar, a national reciter, was renowned internationally for his breath capacity (the longest in the world, it was said).

[8] Qari Muammar is the seventh child of ten, of which only nine lived to adulthood, of H. Zainal Asykin and Hj.

Qari Muammar was born in Moga district which is approximately 40 km south from the capital city of Pemalang Regency in Central Java.

Muammar married a woman from Aceh named Syarifah Nadiya in 1984 and has a daughter and four sons.